The Diaries Of Charles Greville

Oct 11, 2024 12:30 PM

Author:Edward Pearce

Charles Greville (1794-1865) made his first occasional diary entries in 1814, but the diary only became a regular habit in the mid-1820s, continuing with occasional breaks, about which he is self-reproachful, through the reigns of George IV, William IV and Victoria. Finally, in 1860, after shaking his head over the worrying triumphs of Garibaldi, he closed it, once and for all. The grandson of a duke, Greville looked with a level and scornful eye upon royalty. George was 'the most worthless dog that ever lived'; William 'the silliest old gentleman in his own dominions, but what can be expected of a man with a head like a pineapple?' The diaries roused Queen Victoria - 'an odd woman' - from the lethargy of her widowhood.She spoke of Greville's 'indiscretion, indelicacy, ingratitude toward friends, betrayal of confidence and shameful disloyalty'.

Greville's circle included Talleyrand, Wellington, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, Princess Lieven, Lord Grey, Melbourne, Guizot and Disraeli, as well as 'jockeys, bookmakers and blackguards'.As Clerk of the Privy Council, Greville works for a compromise on the Reform Bill.He witnesses Covent Garden theatre burning down.His closest friend, Lord De Ros, is caught cardsharping. Visiting Balmoral, he finds Albert and Victoria living 'not merely like small gentlefolks, but like very small gentlefolks'. When cholera comes, he writes laconically of 'Mrs Smith, young and beautiful, taken ill while dressing for Church and dead by nightfall.' Not a chatterbox, Charles Greville brilliantly assembles everyone else's chatter. This is the intelligent voice of another age, an uneasy aristocrat catching history on the turn and looking dubiously at the future.

Reviews

'The arrival of this book is a good deed in a naughty world...Pearce is to be congratulated for bringing growly, sardonic Greville back into the hubbub he retired from.'

—— Daily Telegraph

'Edward Pearce has released Greville from the prison of dusty research libraries, giving new life to a literary treasure.'

—— Scotland on Sunday

'A thoroughly good idea.'

—— Independent

'Edward Pearce has done a good job of reducing 40-odd years of diary entries to a manageable size.'

—— Guardian

'For insights into the comedy of politics I doubt The Diaries of Charles Greville can be matched. Half Samuel Pepys, half Alan Clark, this inventory of wasted time an assessment of colleagues can't be bettered...The magic ingredient in the Pearces' volume is the candour of the original author...rescued artfully from oblivion'.

—— Scotsman

Convincing and accessible

—— Sunday Times

A scholarly but readable account of the first crusade, refreshingly repositioning it as a successful attempt by the Byzantine Emperor to save Constantinople

—— Katie Owen , Sunday Telegraph (Seven)

The best book on the First Crusade ever written

—— Prof. Paul Chevedden

Peter Frankopan's re-assessment of the Byzantine contribution to the origins and course of the First Crusade offers a compelling and challenging balance to traditional accounts. Based on fresh interpretations of primary sources, lucidly written and forcefully argued, The First Crusade: The Call from the East will demand attention from scholars while providing an enjoyable and accessible narrative for the general reader.

—— Christopher Tyerman, author of God’s War: A New History Of The Crusades

In this fluent and dramatic account, Frankopan - quite rightly - places the Emperor Alexios at the heart of the First Crusade and in doing so he skilfully provides a texture/dimension so often missing from our understanding of this seminal event in world history. Frankopan illuminates the complex challenges that faced Alexios and deftly depicts the boldness and finesse needed to survive in the dangerous world of medieval Byzantium

—— Jonathan Phillips, author of Holy Warriors

It is not possible to do justice to a long and complex argument in a short review, and the author clearly shows that Byzantine politics played a significant part in the formulation of Western attitudes

—— Church Times

Frankopan's creative revisionism pierces the armour of medieval history with a new weapon: the call of the East

—— Oxford Times

Superb…brilliantly described…I am proceeding to tell everyone I know that they have to buy the book, read it, and change the way they teach the First Crusade

—— Dr. Steve Biddlecombe, Bristol University

Ian Mortimer puts the little man back into the 14th Century in this sights, smells, sounds and swords-based romp... Fans of popular history and historical fiction will devour it... It is Mortimer's best work to date

—— Dan Jones , The Telegraph

Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time

—— The Times

As lively as it is informative. His (Mortimer's) work of speculative social history is eminently entertaining but this doesn't detract from the seriousness and the thorough research involved

—— Financial Times

The most enjoyable history book I've read all year

—— Independent, Books of the Year

This is the history book I've been waiting for: the essential handbook for any would-be Time Lords wishing to travel to the Middle Ages. Thorough, detailed and totally absorbing

—— Jason Webster

A unique and astonishing social history book which is revolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining

—— History magazine

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